17/05/2008 10:08 PM
St George Illawarra has thrashed a below-strength Melbourne Storm 36-12 at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night.
The reigning premiers had won the past seven contests between the teams but with only three of its leading players absent on State of Origin duty compared with nine from the Storm, the Dragons cruised to just their third win of 2008.
With Mark Gasnier, Matt Cooper and Ben Hornby missing, five-eighth Jamie Soward starred, setting up his team's first two tries off his own boot, including an audacious kick on the first tackle following a scrum feed, and then added a try just to cap his night.
Jason Nightingale grabbed a double and Michael Lett and the Morris twins, Brett and then Josh, also went over for four-pointers, Brett flying through to score following Soward's superb chip kick.
The Storm battled hard throughout and after trailing 14-2 at the break did score the first try of the second half through Will Chambers to briefly threaten a fightback, but another handling error gifted the Dragons their third try of the night to all but end the contest.
It may have been without the likes of Cam Smith, Greg Inglis, Billy Slater and Israel Folau, but Melbourne actually grabbed an early 2-0 lead in just the seventh minute when Jeremy Smith landed a penalty.
But seven minutes later, Soward levelled the scores before his chip over the head of Brett Anderson in the 22nd minute gave Nightingale the easiest of tries when he simply had to catch and touch down.
Another penalty extended the lead and then, eight minutes before half-time, Soward put in the kick that Brett Morris ran down just ahead of the dead-ball line to plant the ball for the 14-2 lead.
Steve Turner's short ball for Chambers allowed him to burst through and narrow the gap to 14-6 and a knock-on soon after gave them good field position but they couldn't cash in.
Then another knock-on 20m from their own line from the visitors saw Josh Morris crash over in the 53rd minute, and four minutes later Michael Lett's first career try extended the score to 26-6.
Soward brilliantly dived forward to force the ball after he had initially fumbled Rangi Chase's kick and then added the extras before Nightingale registered his double, while a great move from the Storm saw Sika Manu score his own first try late on.
St George Illawarra Dragons 36
Tries: Nightingale 2, B Morris, J Morris, Lett, Soward
Conversions: Soward 4
Penalties: Soward 2
Melbourne Storm 12
Tries: Chambers, Manu
Conversion: Turner
Penalty: J Smith
Sportal's NRL Player of the Year:
3 - Jamie Soward (Dragons)
2 - Ben Creagh (Dragons)
1 - Matt Geyer (Storm)